Discussion

Family of four Dinner < 200E

I will be in Barcelona next month for 4 nights, visiting my son who is spending spring semester there.I would like some recommendations for dinner and lunch. I have read the boards and it seems many restaurants are very expensive. I am looking for good food, not necessarily cutting edge, molecular gastronomy, but a place that you woud want to go back to. I would like to spend 200E for dinner, family of four, less for lunch. We were in Barcelona before and had a memorable meal at Hoffman, but too expensive to return and a lot of fun at Cal Pep.Help

It is true that Barcelona can be expensive compare to rest of Spain but it not needs to be. Except for the very top restaurants, you should be able to eat very well on your budget. There has been many earlier posts on moderate to inexpensive places to eat. For traditional, I like Fonda Gaig (not the excellent but expensive flapship Can Gaig); a little more modern but not molecular are Gresca and Embat. And one will spend a lot less at any good sit down tapas places: Paco Meralgo, Cerverseria Catalana, Cuitat Condal. the more eclectic Santa Maria, Cat181. Some good moderate seafood places such as El Barkito, La Paradeta and Mar de la Ribera. The table service back room of Taktika Berri (some of the best pintxos at the bar) has very good Basque food. Then there are the good inexpensive everyday places such as Can Lluis, La Cova Fumada, Sant Joan, Foxos, Goliard. Most of these has a menu del dia for lunch (around 12E and some less), simple, decent to good and filling. You will also be able to rub elbows with locals. On way to enjoy some top places is to splurge one night, then somewhere simple the next. Also, each day, make one of the meal tapas or pintxos (I rarely spend more than 20E on these and usually much less) and the other the main meal. Many of the good modern Catalan restaurants such as Sauc, L'Olive, Coure, Cinc Sentits are not as cutting edge as one led to believe. Much of the food is accessible, tasty and they feature some of the best seasonal ingredients.

Inside the Boqueria, there are about 6 kiosks type of places that serve very good simple traditional Catalan food. Bar Pinotxo is the most well known, but others such as Kiosko Universal are just as good. All are counter seating only with about a dozen seats. No printed menu, blackboard only. It is very popular for late breakfast and lunch. If you are a party of 4, it is nearly impossible to seat together during busy times. Although the Boqueria closes at 7pm, these places are usually shut by 5pm.